Geolinguistic Regions and Diasporas in the Age of Satellite Tel
Transcript of Geolinguistic Regions and Diasporas in the Age of Satellite Tel
Geolinguistic Regions and Diasporas in the Age of Satellite
Television1
Josu Amezaga Albizu
University of the Basque Country
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Geolinguistic Regions and Diasporas in the Age of Satellite Television
Abstract
Studies of the globalisation processes in the communications media have frequently
emphasised the planetary-scale diffusion of the dominant cultural and linguistic models.
This is undoubtedly a clearly observable tendency of our age. However, at the same time
different tendencies can be observed through which globalisation is also affecting other
languages and cultures, which have no choice but to globalise themselves since they belong
to less favoured communities. This is the case, for example, of the languages that migrant
and diasporic populations take with them on their journeys. A detailed analysis of the world
panorama of satellite television makes this phenomenon clearly apparent, where the
presence of those other languages makes it possible to speak of the formation of
geolinguistic regions that cross geographical spaces and the frontiers of the nation state.
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Geolinguistic Regions and Diasporas in the Age of Satellite Television
Introduction
The formation of markets and audiences that extend beyond the more traditional
sphere of national communication spaces, giving rise to transnational or global spaces, is
one of the most studied aspects of the changes occurring in the panorama of television in
the age of globalisation. Studies of the planetary scale movements of the big media groups
in the field of transborder television show how these groups, the majority originating in the
richer countries, are extending their power towards different regions of the world. This
expansion has clear cultural implications, which some describe in brief as cultural
imperialism.
In comparison to the studies of how the big communication agents are occupying an
increasingly large space on the planet, there are studies that manage to show the other face
of globalisation: specifically those tendencies that do not extend from the metropolises
towards the periphery, but that are emerging in the peripheral areas, in some cases forming
big regional agents, and in others reaching into the area of the metropolises themselves. The
now classic work of Sinclair, Jacka and Cunningham, besides clearly raising this other
aspect of globalisation, also shows how one of the key elements of global television is that
it is based on “geolinguistic regions” rather than on continuous geographical spaces
(Sinclair, Jacka, and Cunningham 1996).
Parallel to this second line of research, there is, in our opinion, a third aspect which
has not focused as much on the big communication agents as on the studies of what authors
such as Karim call globalisation “from below” (Karim 2003). Within this line we find, on
the one hand, the work of Arjun Appadurai, who brilliantly highlights the cultural changes
that are occurring in a globalised world in which there is an increasing flow of persons and
media contents (Appadurai 1996). Together with these reflections, we also find a series of
empirical works on the uses and consumption of television by diasporic groups in different
places in the world. This line of research, which while incipient is becoming increasingly
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detailed as we shall see, shows the way in which people displaced from their countries of
origin, or even their descendants, are enthusiastically turning to television broadcasts in the
language that they took with them when they set out on their journey. In some cases these
are broadcasts by the diasporic community itself, and in others they are made from the
country of origin. But in both cases we find people in the privacy of their homes immersing
themselves for a time in a cultural milieu, or public space, different from that beyond their
front door, from that of the country they inhabit. Analysis of these partial studies shows the
increasing possibility for different diasporic groups spread around the world to obtain
access to the mass media of their countries of origin or reference. At the same time, these
works show the implications of this option for the cultural and identitarian reproduction of
the diasporic communities in an age when there is a tendency towards an increase in
multiculturalism, above all in the metropolises.
So as to provide a broader vision that will help in a better understanding of this
other aspect of globalisation in the field of television, this article aims to show the presence
of different languages in satellite television broadcasts throughout the world, as well as the
places to which the broadcasts in each language are directed. In this way, we hope to
support the idea that globalisation is not only strengthening the hegemony of a few
dominant languages and cultures on a planetary scale, but is at the same time causing the
expansion of other geolinguistic – as well as geocultural – regions, especially within the
wealthier countries, thus giving rise to apparently contradictory tendencies. We also reflect
on whether the picture of immigrants who, when switching on the television, tune in not to
the media of their country of residence but to that of the other community of which they
also form part, is merely an incidental question or whether it is a phenomenon that will
acquire considerable scale in the near future, transforming the diasporic experience itself
(Askoy and Robins 2003a).
Methodology
There are considerable difficulties involved in carrying out a global count,
especially since satellite television is an area undergoing constant evolution and growth.
The increase in broadcasting capacity thanks to technological development (digitalisation,
new satellites with greater capacity, etc.) or business reorganisation, for example, are
producing daily changes in the world panorama of satellite television. However, while
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recognising the risk of errors and omissions in our totals, we believe that we are in a
position to offer an approximation of the linguistic reality of the broadcasts.
Our starting point was the databases of the Satco satellite control centre, associated
with the magazine Tele Satellite International (Satco 2002), and the Swedish centre
Lyngsat (Lyngsat 2003). Given the complexity and volume of the information, frequent
differences can be observed between the lists provided by each source. Where such
differences have been detected, we have turned to other sources, such as specialist
publications, the websites of television channels, consultation with experts, etc. This has
enabled us to create our own database for carrying out our count.
Given that both sources include very different types of video and audio broadcasts,
we have filtered these. With respect to television broadcasts, these are obviously not all
DTH (Direct To Home) signals, that is, directed to an end user: many correspond to feed
channels amongst television broadcasting centres that are later rebroadcast (either by
satellite, or by cable), etc. In filtering the data, we have tried to include only those
broadcasts that are either directed to the end user (in either open or encrypted form,
analogue or digital), or to cable suppliers, inasmuch as the latter multiply the broadcast of
the signal received from a satellite.
Having reached this point, we found ourselves facing a very broad typology of
television signals, broadcast by more than 160 satellites in geostationary orbit included in
this study. Together with the open channels (Free To Air or FTA), which can be obtained
using a domestic receiver connected to a parabolic antenna aimed at a specific satellite
without the need of paying a fee, we also considered the encrypted channels. The
combination of the capacity to broadcast to vast zones of the planet and to control reception
through encrypting gives rise in its turn, within DTH television, to an array of television
types. These range from the broadcast of a single open signal to several continents to
encrypted broadcasting restricted to a single city (such as the case of local-into-local
broadcasts in the United States). We find another example of restriction in those broadcasts
aimed at very specific sectors of the population, such as the broadcasts that the American
Forces Network makes throughout the planet, providing their own contents to North
American soldiers on different international missions; or those of the corporate television
Daimler-Chrysler Business TV, which broadcasts information in seven different languages
to the centres where the 300,000 employees of this group work in different parts of the
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world. To these types we must obviously add broadcasts corresponding to educational
networks, the exchange of contents between production centres, and many other types that
are not included on what is normally considered as conventional television directed at the
domestic user.
We should also mention that our count includes broadcast signals irrespective of
whether the same content is being broadcast on two or more different frequencies, systems
or satellites. This means that we do not count different channels, but broadcasts, which is
something that should be borne clearly in mind when interpreting the information that we
offer here. To have worked with channels rather than signals would have meant, firstly, a
clear definition of what a channel is: for example, if the same programs are transmitted in
different languages, or at different times, or under a different name, or in a different order,
etc., would this have to be considered as different channels or as variations of the same
channel? This would have meant an almost impossible labour of analysis and detailed
comparison of broadcasts, something that is obviously far beyond our resources. We know
that many channels broadcast simultaneously using dozens of signals and different
satellites, while others do so using only one signal. But we believe that knowing the total
number of broadcasts in each language is of greater interest than knowing the total number
of channels that broadcast in that language, since this figure comes closer to showing the
real presence of each language on satellite television.
With respect to information on the languages in which the signals counted are
broadcast, we can observe that there are a growing number of channels that broadcast
together with video signals, different audio signals in different languages. On occasions it is
the user who makes the linguistic choice, and on others this is decided by the distributor. In
these cases, we have chosen to count as many broadcasts as languages employed. Similarly,
we use the information that the databases mentioned above usually offer on the main
language employed in the broadcast, irrespective of whether this might include spaces in
other languages, subtitles, etc. To define the languages we have opted for the classification
employed by Ethnologue (Grimes 1992).
Another question to be considered is the geographical area reached by the signals. It
is easier to determine the scope of diffusion in cases where signals are included in
subscription packages, since this is reflected in the market of the package in question; this
is the case with two thirds of the broadcasts counted. With the remaining third, that is,
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broadcasts not included in packages and free signals, the area of reception is not determined
by economic and political considerations but by technical questions, such as the strength of
the signal or the size of the dish antenna used. In these cases we have chosen to count all
the territories where reception of the signals is theoretically possible, dedicating more space
to explaining those signals that can be received using domestic dish antennas no greater
than one metre and a half in diameter.
Finally, we must recall that in this study we count the languages in which signals
are broadcast, not the countries from which the broadcasts are made or where the contents
are produced. This is especially relevant, for example, with those televisions corresponding
to ethnic minorities that do not broadcast from their countries of origin, but from the
countries where the minority in question has settled, provided by different business bodies
or organisations or by the communitarian organisations of the ethnic group. It is also
relevant in the case of broadcasts aimed at the diaspora, not in the language of the country
of origin but in that of the receiver country (for example, broadcasts in Spanish to the
Basque diaspora in Latin America, or in English to the Jewish community in the United
States).
The distribution of broadcasts by languages
In our count we have found a total of 13,570 television broadcasts by satellite
throughout the world. Approximately ten thousand correspond to encrypted signals, and
over eight thousand of these were diffused through subscription packages. Table 1 shows
distribution by the main language used, and by the open or encrypted character of the
signal. The first conclusion that can be drawn, as we have already indicated in a previous
article (Amezaga 2004b), is the supremacy of English, a language that accounts for over
40% of total broadcasts.2 The second observation is the fact that out of the thousands of
languages currently spoken in the world, less than eighty are used in satellite television
broadcasts. Amongst the fortunate ones we find both the languages of big linguistic
communities and the languages of small communities. Similarly, amongst those languages
that are currently excluded from this medium, we not only find languages with a scarce
diffusion, but also some thirty languages that are each spoken by over ten million people
(that is, half of the languages that reach such a proportion in the whole world). Finally, it is
notable that practically all of those on satellite television have, to a greater or lesser extent,
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an official character in one or more states or regions. This is a fact to bear in mind when
evaluating the important role that the state continues to play in the development of
languages, especially in an age when there is so much talk of the overcoming of nation state
frontiers thanks, amongst other phenomena, to satellite communication. The only two
exceptions to this rule are Kurdish and Assyrian, two languages that while lacking official
recognition have acceded to satellite broadcasting from the diaspora, although they are not
free of difficulties proceeding from the nation states (Hassanpour 2003).
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Table 1: Television satellite broadcasts in the world 3
Language Speakers (000)
Broadcasts FTA Language Speakers (000)
Broadcasts FTA
English 508,0004 6.194 14% Albanian 5,000 11 36%Spanish 352,000 1.555 19% Kannada 42,000 10 60%French 122,000 740 18% Slovak 5,600 10 60%Chinese5 1,042,000 545 38% Catalan 11,000 9 11%Portuguese 175,000 540 30% Marathi 65,000 8 50%Arabic 375,000 526 73% Georgian 4,000 7 86%German 118,000 321 59% Gujarati 39,000 7 43%Italian 63,000 321 47% Latvian 1,500 7 43%Japanese 126,000 311 23% Armenian 5,500 6 83%Russian 294,000 227 56% Azerbaijan 4,000 6 100%Korean 72,000 209 21% Kazakh 8,000 5 100%Turkish 56,000 197 49% Burmese 22,000 4 100%Hindi 367,000 170 46% Cambodian 7,000 4 100%Polish 43,000 133 20% Lithuanian 4,000 4 75%Swedish 9,000 118 16% Luxemburgese 335 4 100%Greek 12,000 87 40% Nepali 16,000 4 75%Hungarian 14,500 61 23% Oriya 30,000 4 75%Bulgarian 9,000 54 26% Sanskrit 200 4 100%Farsi 30,000 51 94% Galician 3,200 3 100%Thai 21,000 51 88% Kashmiri 4,500 3 100%Hebrew 4,000 45 16% Sinhala 13,000 3 0%Urdu 50,000 45 53% Slovenian 2,200 3 67%Dutch 20,000 42 24% Turkmenian 6,500 3 100%Romanian 25,000 42 60% Mongolian 1,900 2 100%Tamil 66,000 42 40% Assyrian 200 2 100%Malay/Indonesian 143,000 39 51% Macedonian 2,000 2 100%Serbo-Croatian 20,000 36 58% Pashto 19,000 2 100%Danish 2,300 34 15% Tswana 4,000 2 50%Czech 12,000 31 10% Welsh 600 2 100%Norwegian 4,400 31 19% Tajik 4,000 1 100%Philippine 57,000 31 26% Amharic 23,000 1 100%Malayalam 34,000 26 62% Basque 800 1 100%Telugu 69,000 26 54% Belarussian 10,200 1 100%Bengali 187,000 25 76% Estonian 1,100 1 100%Ukrainian 46,000 23 91% Irish 260 1 0%Finnish 6,000 18 17% Lao 4,000 1 100%Punjabi 20,000 17 59% Maldivian 200 1 100%Vietnamese 59,000 14 100% Tibetan 1,300 1 100%Kurdish 15,000 12 100% Indefinite6 428 21%
Total general 13.570 25%
Another notable aspect of these figures is the difference found between broadcasts
in different languages depending on whether they are encrypted or open. As a general
tendency, it can be said that the languages with a greater presence appear mainly in
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encrypted packages, the majority included in subscription packages. On the contrary, the
languages with less presence have a greater tendency to open diffusion or FTA. There are
however significant differences between the languages of the two groups, as we shall see
below.
Languages with a greater presence
In order to analyse the data in greater detail, we will first concentrate on the
languages that have a greater presence on satellite television. If we consider those
languages that are present in over one hundred broadcasts, a first observation is that within
this group we find nearly all those with the greatest worldwide diffusion (those spoken by
over one hundred million people), with the exception of Bengali and Malay/Indonesian,
which, in spite of their far surpassing the figure of one hundred million speakers, do not
reach fifty broadcasts. Together with these languages of large communities, there are others
with less demographic weight (Italian, Korean, Turkish, Polish and Swedish) that are
present in many satellite broadcasts. Another characteristic of this group is that it includes
those languages that we could term intercontinental, that is, they enjoy some type of official
recognition in territories situated in different continents: English, Spanish, French,
Portuguese and Arabic. The exception to this observation is Dutch, which, in spite of
having an official character in territories of the Caribbean and in South Africa, does not
exceed forty broadcasts.
English
Obviously, one of the reasons for the hegemony of English in satellite television
broadcasts must be sought in its character as a global language, according to the rank it is
ascribed by David Crystal, taking account not only of the number of people who speak it
but also its status in many countries (the official or co-official language in 76 countries or
territories) and in international relations of every type (economic, political, scientific, etc.)
(Crystal 1997).
While the global character of the language partly explains the impressive number of
English-language broadcasts, the characteristics of the satellite television market in the
main English-speaking countries, especially in North America (the United States and
Canada), are of equal or greater importance for understanding this fact. Indeed, as we can
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observe in table 2, nearly eight out of every ten of the English-language broadcasts we have
counted are aimed exclusively at the main English-speaking countries; either because this is
the area of the signal’s technical diffusion or because they are encrypted broadcasts with
access restricted to a specific market. In the specific case of broadcasts directed to the
United States, we find that half (approximately 2,000) are signals corresponding to local
televisions, which can only be received using decoders restricted to the local area.7 In
Canada, as well, there is a notable number of local broadcasts that are retransmitted by
satellite.
Table 2: Distribution of English language broadcasts by geographical zonePrincipal English-speaking regions 4,847
USA, Canada 4,239UK, Ireland 327Australia, New Zealand 281
Other regions 1,347America (included USA and Canada)8 59Mediterranean, West Asia 318Europe (included UK and Ireland) 305South East Asia 213Southern Asia, Indian Ocean 117Eastern Asia, Pacific (included Australia and New Zealand) 88Africa 169Gobal (Atlantic) 28Global (Asia, Pacific, Indian Sea) 25Others 25
Total broadcasts in English 6,194
Together with the North American space, Great Britain and Ireland, followed by
Australia and New Zealand, are the other points towards which an important number of
English-language broadcasts are directed. To a lesser extent, we can mention countries
where English, while not the language spoken by the majority, holds great social weight
and has an official status (the Indian subcontinent, the Philippines, Malaysia, or African
countries like South Africa, Nigeria and others).
The weight of English in satellite television broadcasts must therefore be situated in
general terms within this panorama where the majority of such broadcasts are concentrated
in English-speaking areas. It is difficult to determine the number of English-language
broadcasts in zones where it is neither the official language nor the language of the
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majority, given that encrypted broadcasts, to which a market can be more easily attributed,
are combined with open broadcasts that can be received in extensive zones of the planet,
including both Anglophone and non-Anglophone countries. If we consider all of them as a
whole, we can speak of somewhat over one thousand English-language broadcasts that
could theoretically be received outside the zones that are mainly English speaking. Two
thirds of these signals are broadcast in encrypted form.
On the other hand, out of the ensemble of broadcasts that are not centred on regions
where English is exclusively or predominantly spoken, a notable number of broadcasts can
be received in Europe, both open and encrypted (in some cases directed to subscribers to a
specific satellite platform, or to cable-operators who then distribute the signal to their
customers). This presence of English language broadcasts in the European zone is
something highly evident to its inhabitants, amongst other reasons because some English
channels reach audiences of many million people (Chalaby 2002). If we add to the
broadcasts aimed at exclusively European or pan-European markets, those that also include
the Mediterranean zone and the Middle East, we find ourselves dealing with a macro-region
in which the English language channels have a significant presence (in the European case
this presence is greater in the Northern European countries, Italy and Spain, and smaller in
France, Germany or Greece).
Different parts of Asia are also another important market for English language
broadcasts. On the one hand, many of the signals that cover the Mediterranean also reach
Central Asia. On the other hand, the expansion of English language broadcasts towards the
markets of East and Southeast Asia is well known thanks to different studies, both to
countries where English is officially recognised and to other places (Chang 2003; Ellis
2001; Thomas 1999).
With respect to the non-Anglophone countries of sub-Saharan Africa and Latin
America, while in absolute terms there is a significant presence of English language
channels, in relative terms there is an appreciably lower presence than in Europe, Asia or
Oceania.
Spanish
The strength of the American satellite television market is not only reflected in the
number of English language broadcasts, but also in the quantity of Spanish language
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broadcasts. From the data in Table 3, we can similarly highlight the relatively small
presence of Spanish language broadcasts outside the regions and countries where it is not
the official language (that is, outside Latin America and Spain). The chief exception is the
United States, a country where there is an important presence of Hispanic television
channels. This interesting phenomenon has already been highlighted and analysed in
different works (Sinclair 1999; Sinclair, Jacka, and Cunningham 1996). In fact, the United
States accounts for nearly all Spanish language broadcasts targeting national markets that
are not officially Spanish speaking. The remainder is made up of open broadcasts directed
either at Europe and the Mediterranean as a whole, or to different parts of the American
continent, also reaching Brazil, the United States or Canada.
Table 3: Distribution of Spanish language broadcasts by geographical zoneAmerica 1,180
USA 283Mexico 158
Europe 249Spain 228
Other regions 126Mediterranean (South Europe, North Africa, Middle East) 47Global (America, Europe) 73Global (Europe, Africa) 4Asia, Oceania 2
Total broadcasts in Spanish 1,555
In spite of Spanish being the second language in terms of its presence on satellite
television and the fourth or fifth in terms of forming a linguistic community in the world,
there are little more than a dozen signals outside these two continents, reaching Asia
beyond the Middle East or sub-Saharan Africa, and its presence is very limited in Oceania.
French
French, while spoken by less than half the number of those who speak Spanish, has
a more widespread diffusion around the planet. This is explained by the continued existence
of overseas territories of the French Republic, the use of French as a colonial language in
many countries until well into the XX century, and its importance as a diplomatic language
until its replacement by English. This is reflected in the distribution of French language
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broadcasts throughout the world. On the one hand, these reach the territories where French
is spoken, amongst which France and Canada are outstanding with a similar number of
broadcasts in each country, followed by French overseas territories (the Reunion Islands,
the French Antilles, New Caledonia and French Polynesia) and African countries where
French has an official status. The great majority of these broadcasts are included in
encrypted packages with a national diffusion. On the other hand, a third of the broadcasts
extend to regions where French is not an official language, both in open form, reaching
huge geographical zones, and in encrypted form. The majority of these broadcasts cover the
European continent and the Mediterranean (over one hundred broadcasts) and, to a lesser
degree but significantly, the United States (approximately forty signals). Finally, some
thirty broadcasts are diffused over huge zones of Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Chinese
One of the factors differentiating Chinese language broadcasts from those we have
considered until now is the high number of open or FTA broadcasts in comparison with
encrypted ones. While in the English case the percentage is 14%, and in the Spanish and
French cases it does not exceed 20%, in the Chinese case it reaches 38%. This greater
technical capacity for reception by the inhabitants of the countries covered by the signals
clashes, however, with the control exerted by the Chinese government - similar to that of
other governments in both Asia and other parts of the world - over the diffusion and
reception of satellite signals (Thomas 1999; Thomas 2003; Xiaoming 2000). This can, for
example, affect the reception of Chinese language television signals proceeding from
Taiwan and diffused in the mainland China.
On the other hand, broadcasts in Chinese are not restricted to zones where this
language (or ensemble of languages, since we include here broadcasts in both Mandarin
and Cantonese) is official. Other authors have already indicated the importance of the
diaspora in the projection of Chinese channels towards different parts of the planet, given
the economic potential of the Chinese emigrants throughout the world (Karim 1998; Karim
2004). In fact, 28% of broadcasts in Chinese are diffused in countries where this language
has no official status. This has converted Southeast Asia into a region with a great diffusion
of television signals in Chinese; there is a significant presence of Chinese inhabitants in the
area, estimated at twenty million people by some authors (Chaliand and Rageau 1995).
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Beyond the Chinese linguistic area and neighbouring Southeast Asia, America is
outstanding as a receiver of Chinese language broadcasts, with seventy television signals
reaching this continent, two thirds of which are concentrated in the United States alone.
After Southeast Asia and America, a third area of diffusion for these signals is formed by
Australia and New Zealand, which are reached by a hundred signals (a third of them in
specific form, and the rest through global diffusion on C band, whose reception requires
large dish antennas). These countries are followed at some distance by Europe, which
receives approximately twenty broadcasts, half of them encrypted.
Portuguese
In the case of Portuguese, we find ourselves facing a profile similar to that found
with Spanish, both with respect to the importance of the “American relative” (in this case
Brazil), and in the concentration of broadcasts in zones where this language is official.
Brazil, where two thirds of the broadcasts are diffused, holds a significant weight, far
exceeding Portugal, which receives less than ten percent. We find the rest of the broadcasts,
both open and encrypted, in different regions of America and Europe, with a small presence
in Asia, Oceania and Africa, a continent where Portuguese is, however, an official language
in several states.9
Arabic
The most outstanding characteristic of broadcasts in Arabic is that these are open in
the majority of cases. Indeed, with three out of every four signals being of this type, it
doubles the percentage we observed for Chinese. These broadcasts cover, in the first place,
the zones where Arabic is spoken, from the Persian Gulf to the Atlantic coast of North
Africa, contributing to the creation of an Arabic public sphere that crosses state frontiers, as
well as the communication space that was amongst the initial objectives of Arabsat (Lynch
2003; Miladi 2004).
Equally striking is the fact that, unlike the broadcasts in Spanish, French or
Portuguese, and along the same line as Chinese, some 30% of Arabic broadcasts are
specifically aimed at zones outside the Arab countries. These zones are, in the first place,
Europe, which is reached not only by specific broadcasts but also by a large number of
signals that cover the whole Mediterranean, reaching a total of over one hundred and
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twenty. France is a case to highlight, as it has nearly twenty channels included in
subscription packages. Europe is followed by the American continent (basically the United
States), where more than eighty broadcasts can be received. They are followed at a distance
by the thirty broadcasts aimed at Asia and Oceania.
The languages of India
Taken as a whole, the languages of the Indian subcontinent that have satellite
television broadcasts (Hindu, Urdu, Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali, Telegu, Punjabi, Kannada,
Marathi, Gujurati, Oriya, Nepali, Sanskrit, Sinhala, Kashmiri, Maldivian and Pashto) add
up to an ensemble of over one thousand million speakers, as well nearly four hundred
broadcasts. Hindu is the language that stands out from the rest with the greatest number of
broadcasts, 170. It is followed by Urdu with 45 and Tamil with 42. On the contrary, others
are present with barely a couple of broadcasts, as can be observed in Table 1.
The broadcasts in the different languages of the subcontinent are divided between
those that are diffused within the region itself and those that are aimed at other zones. As a
whole, half of all broadcasts are made in open form, with their reception therefore not so
limited to a specific market or state. This guarantees the presence of a large part of these
languages in practically the whole Asian continent. It must be pointed out, however, that a
significant part of them are transmitted on C band, which limits their reception to large dish
antennas, more common to rediffusion centres than to private users.
Outside Asia, we find a significant number of signals in Europe, North Africa and
the Middle East. More than fifty broadcasts reach the region, led by Hindi, with twenty-
three broadcasts, and followed by Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam, Bengali, Punjabi, Sinhala and
Maldivian, with several signals each. We also find a significant number of broadcasts in
these languages in America (especially the United States) and in Oceania, with over thirty
signals in each zone.
Looking beyond the whole, we can say that the languages with the greatest presence
in satellite broadcasts are also those that have the highest percentage of broadcasts outside
the subcontinent. This is the case of Tamil, for example, with half of its broadcasts directed
towards Europe, the Middle East, America or Australia; of Hindi, with a third of its
broadcasts diffused in the same regions; of Urdu, with a similar percentage aimed at Europe
and America; or of Malayalam and Bengali, with more than a quarter of their broadcasts
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directed to America in the former case, and to Europe and the Mediterranean in the latter.
While their total number of broadcasts is lower, the same tendency can be observed with
respect to Punjabi, Gujurati and Marathi. The remainder tend to be concentrated in the
South of Asia.
Other languages with a large diffusion
German
Nearly two thirds of German language broadcasts are realised in open form, directed
to broad zones extending beyond the frontiers of the state, basically to Europe and the
Mediterranean, a region that receives nine out of every ten broadcasts. The great majority
of encrypted broadcasts are obviously directed to Germany or Austria. Outside the
European continent, we find a dozen broadcasts in Africa, a similar number in America,
and five within the encrypted package Yes in Israel. There are two broadcasts that reach
beyond Central Asia.
Italian
Broadcasts in Italian offer us a similar panorama to those in the German language.
With one out of every two broadcasts in open form, nearly half of the signals remain within
the limits of Europe and the Mediterranean. Nearly the same number of broadcasts reaches
West Asia, while few others are diffused in other continents. Amongst the latter, twenty
broadcasts are diffused in America (above all in the United States). With respect to the rest
of the world, we find two broadcasts in Africa and two more in Asia and Oceania.
Japanese
Japanese is another language that appears principally in signals diffused in its own
region, with nine out of every ten broadcasts concentrated in the archipelago. Outside these
islands, we can mention over a dozen broadcasts that can be received in other areas in East
Asia, as well as eight available in America (basically in the United States), four in Europe
and one in Oceania.
Russian
Over half of the television signals in which Russian is the principal or exclusive
language are broadcast in open form. That is why the zones of their reception tend to
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extend beyond the limits of the present-day Russian Federation, with an important presence
in the whole of the northern half of the Asian continent. This includes a large part of China
and the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia. Towards the west, the Russian language
signals also reach European countries, especially the regions of the Baltic Sea, the north
and east of the continent. Outside these zones neighbouring on Russian territory, the
broadcasts in America are notable, with a dozen in the United States, as well as a similar
number of signals diffused in Israel, where the Jewish community originating from Russia
consists of a million people, the majority of them recent arrivals in the country (Caspi et al.
2002). Finally, we would mention the five broadcasts directed towards Australia and the
Pacific, which, while needing large dish antennas for their reception, ensure this language a
presence in the region.
Korean
Eighty percent of broadcasts in Korean are diffused in the East of Asia; the majority
are encrypted signals directed to the South Korean market, besides others directed to other
regional countries or to the region as a whole. The twenty-four broadcasts to America
(principally the United States) are notable amongst the signals diffused outside the zone.
On the contrary, there is a very small presence of Korean language broadcasts in Europe,
where there are two signals, or in Oceania, where there are slightly more.
Turkish
After Turkey itself, Europe is the area where most signals in Turkish can be
received, given the abundant open broadcasts that cover the continent partially or totally.
To be specific, more than one hundred signals can be received throughout the continent, the
majority in open form, and some included in subscription packages, as is the case with a
dozen broadcasts in Germany, where there is an important Turkish community. On the
other hand, it should be noted that many of the broadcasts that cover Europe and Turkey
also reach the Mediterranean and the republics of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan), which form another great target area for signals in
this language (Askoy and Robins 2000). This is explained by the fact that following the
collapse of the Soviet Union and the independence of these republics, a large linguistic
space was opened up, based on languages with a common origin from which it is more or
less possible to understand Turkish language broadcasts. This geolinguistic space, which
18
reaches from the Mediterranean to well inside China, is of great interest for a country that
until barely a century ago led one of the great empires of history – the Ottoman Empire
To a much lesser extent we also find broadcasts in Turkish in America (half a
dozen, nearly all in the United States) and in Oceania.
Polish
With respect to Polish, we find the majority of broadcasts centred in Europe, some
of them in Poland alone and others spread over the continent and its Western Asian
neighbours. Also significant are the dozen broadcasts in this language that are diffused to
the United States.
Swedish
Swedish is a language that, in spite of being present in over one hundred satellite
broadcasts, is barely diffused outside Europe. With a great concentration of signals in the
north of Europe, we only find a couple of broadcasts in this language in South Africa and
America, corresponding to versions in the Swedish language within channels with a
multilingual diffusion.
Languages with a medium presence
In this group we include languages that have between ten and one hundred
broadcasts. Some of these languages barely have any notable presence outside the countries
where they have an official status, or in neighbouring regions if they are open broadcasts.
This is the case, for example, with European languages like Slovak or Ukrainian, without
any diffusion outside Europe, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean; Czech, (which appears
in a couple of broadcasts for Germany besides the open signals towards Europe);
Norwegian, Finnish, Bulgarian, Danish and Albanian, all with one signal towards America
alongside their presence in Europe; or Hungarian, with some broadcasts centred on
European countries other than Hungary (the United Kingdom and Poland), and a presence
in Australia and the United States (one broadcast in each). Rumanian also tends to be
concentrated in Europe and neighbouring areas, although five channels in this language can
be received in North America (four of them open), besides one channel in Israel.
Dutch also appears concentrated in broadcasts directed to Europe and to other areas
where it is an official language: the South African Republic and the Caribbean (the Dutch
19
Antilles and Surinam), although in this case the diffusion covers a large part of Latin
America. It also has a presence in the United States and Oceania, with two and three
broadcasts respectively.
A similar position is held by Asian languages that are barely diffused beyond the
country where they have an official presence, or in more or less neighbouring areas: this is
the case with Philippine, with two signals that reach Europe, America and Oceania; or
Malay, the official language of Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei. This language,
which is spoken by more than one hundred and forty million people, only appears in three
signals that reach zones outside Southeast Asia (North Africa and the Middle East, Europe
and the United States, with one signal each).
Another case of relative confinement to the country of origin or its neighbouring
areas is Hebrew. Out of a total of forty-five signals, only two reach Europe and four reach
the United States, with the rest diffused in open form towards the Middle East or in the Yes
package of Israel. We also find international broadcasts by Israeli channels, but in other
languages (English and Russian). This is the case, for example, of The Israel History
Channel, which has the stated aim of reaching the diaspora.
The Kurdish language constitutes a singular case. At present there are a dozen
Kurdish broadcasts, although it is a language without officially recognised status in any of
the four states that currently govern Kurdistan. To this must be added the importance of the
diaspora, from which the Kurdish language broadcasts originate. These are mainly received
in an area extending from Europe towards the Caspian Sea (including Kurdistan), and to a
lesser extent in America.
Another language with an important presence outside its territory is Farsi, whose
presence is found in some thirty open broadcasts that not only cover Southwest Asia but
also partially or totally penetrate Europe. On the other hand, there are twenty broadcasts in
the United States, the majority of which are open. This significant presence of broadcasts in
Farsi in Europe and America is largely due to the fact that many proceed from media based
in the United States, where many Iranians emigrated following the Islamic revolution,
which resulted in a certain development of the diasporic media (Naficy 1995). These North
American media are the source of over thirty broadcasts in Farsi throughout the world. The
rest, except for two broadcasts proceeding from the United Kingdom, come from Iran.
20
Other Asian languages with a relatively important presence outside their zone of
origin are Vietnamese, with broadcasts not only in Southeast Asia but also in Europe and
the United States, or Thai, a language that is also present in Australia and New Zealand.
Beyond the Mediterranean and the European continent, Greek has a significant
presence in America, with a dozen broadcasts in the United States. It also has a presence in
Oceania. Serbo-Croatian10 is in a similar situation: besides broadcasts in Europe, it appears
in four signals directed towards Australia and New Zealand, and in another five directed to
the United States.
Languages with a lesser presence
If we consider languages with a presence in less than ten satellite broadcasts, we
can, as a general tendency, note their diffusion in open signals covering extensive zones.
Amongst the European languages, this is the case with Belarussian, Estonian, Macedonian,
Slovenian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Luxemburgese: the majority of broadcasts in these
languages are diffused in certain zones of Europe or throughout the whole continent (except
for some encrypted broadcasts limited to national markets). We find the following Asian
languages in this situation: Lao, Tibetan, Mongolian, Turkmenian, Tajik, Kazakh, Georgian
and Azerbaijan, the latter three of which have signals that also reach Europe. This continent
is also reached by several broadcasts in Armenian, which also has two signals in the United
States (one of which corresponds to a television which was set up in this country). Assyrian
has two signals, one a wide broadcast that covers Southeast Asia and the Mediterranean,
while the other covers the United States. Assyrian is the only language apart from Kurdish
to carry out satellite broadcasts without any official support from a state or a similar
administrative structure; both Assyrian signals originate in a channel based in the United
States.
Since they are broadcast on C band, Burmese and Cambodian achieve a more global
diffusion, although their reception is restricted to large dish antennas. This is also the case
with the only languages of African origin that are currently broadcast by satellite as a main
language, that is, Tswana and Amharic, with signals diffused to different zones of Africa.
Other languages with a minor presence are those whose diffusion is restricted to
nation state markets, due to their inclusion in packages with a limited radius of activity: this
is the case of Irish, which is limited to Ireland, and it was the case of Welsh, which until
21
2003 could be only received in the United Kingdom. In the case of Catalan we find that the
majority of satellite signals are restricted to the Spanish market. There is, however, a
Catalan broadcast directed towards Europe and another towards America.
Other languages with little satellite diffusion have recourse to this technology
almost exclusively to reach distant zones, as they cover their own territory with terrestrial
broadcasts. This is the case with Basque, where the only satellite broadcast with Basque as
the main language is directed towards Europe; or Galician, with open broadcasts towards
Spain and towards America and Europe.
A reading by regions
One of the principal conclusions that can be drawn from what we have seen above is
that there is an abundant presence of satellite broadcasts in languages that are not found
historically in the place to which such broadcasts are directed. This does not only involve
English, the language of global broadcasting, or the other colonial languages that still retain
a certain status in former colonies, such as French, Dutch, Portuguese and others, but is
equally apparent in the significant transborder, and even transcontinental, diffusion of
languages belonging to migrant and diasporic populations.
This is important in a world where, according data from the United Nations, 175
million people live in a country different from their place of birth, as part of a growing
tendency whereby the rich countries are receiving an increasing number of immigrants
from other countries (UNO 2002). According to a report drawn up by this world
organisation, the number of people living outside their country of origin - three percent of
the population of the planet - grew by 14% between 1990 and 2000, but in an unequal form.
Thus, while the increase was 48% in the United States, 26% in Oceania and 16% in Europe,
the poorer countries underwent a negative migration. We believe it is important to bear
these figures and tendencies in mind if we are to adequately weigh the phenomenon of
transborder television, as well as the impact that the latter can have on the social and
cultural life of countries where there is a big diasporic community (especially the rich
countries). It is not our intention to restrict our consideration to immigration, since the
question of diasporas is much wider than this. This is because while the statistics on
migratory movements speak of persons displaced from their place of origin, the studies of
diasporas speak of communities that have maintained themselves as such for generations.
22
Our fieldwork has enabled us to observe how the uses of satellite television can, under
certain conditions, broaden the very concept of diaspora.11 That is why we cannot reduce
diasporas to migrant populations. But consideration of the latter allows us to at least gain an
idea of the dimensions of the phenomenon. In this section we will concentrate our attention,
by way of example, on the presence of the languages of immigrant communities in three
big receiver regions: the United States of America, the European Union and Australia.
The United States
As we have seen, the United States forms the largest satellite television market in
the world, which not only results in a growing number of English language broadcasts, but
also makes it an attractive market for broadcasts in other languages. At the same time, this
country has the largest number of immigrants in the world, with some 35 million people
born elsewhere, representing twelve percent of its population. Besides, immigration is
inherent to the birth and development of the country itself, which has diasporic
communities that have laid down deep roots over generations. If to all this we add the fact
that the country’s economic power provides a large part of the immigrants with a
purchasing power greater than that of the population of their country of origin, we can
better understand why there are so many broadcasts in languages other than English
directed towards this territory (Table 4).
23
Table 4: Satellite television broadcasts and habitual speakers of each language in the
United StatesLanguage Speakers12 Broadcasts Language Speakers Broadcasts
Total262.375.15
24.69
7 Hebrew 195.374 4
English215.423.55
73.79
1 Dutch 150.485 4Other
languages 46.951.595 880 Thai 120.464 3Spanish 28.101.052 448 Telugu 86.165 3
Arabic 614.582 74 Vietnamese1.009.62
5 2Chinese 2.022.143 64 Armenian 202.708 2French 1.643.838 61 Bengali 128.820 2Portuguese 564.630 39 Tamil 83.965 2Korean 894.063 24 Kurdish 10.190 2
Farsi 312.085 21 Philippine1.224.24
1 1Italian 1.008.370 15 Finnish 312.085 1Greek 365.436 14 Punjabi 141.740 1Hindi 317.057 14 Hungarian 117.973 1Russian 706.242 13 Albanian 79.515 1Polish 667.414 13 Swedish 67.655 1German 1.383.442 7 Assyrian 62.890 1Serbo-Croatian 233.865 7 Malay/Indonesian 58.810 1Japanese 477.997 6 Norwegian 55.465 1Urdu 262.900 6 Danish 33.395 1Romanian 114.840 5 Bulgarian 28.565 1Malayalam 79.855 5 Kannada 24.390 1Turkish 74.130 5
In Table 4, together with the number of broadcasts in each language, we can
observe the number of persons above the age of five who, according to official data,
normally use this language at home.13 With respect to satellite television broadcasts, we
have included all those that reach the United States: that is, all broadcasts that are limited
by their diffusion or encrypting to the territory itself, and the other open broadcasts that
reach this country as well as other zones. Four out of five of the 4,697 broadcasts in our
census are in English, which leaves a total of nearly nine hundred in a different language.
Half of the latter are in Spanish, the language of nearly thirty million residents in the United
States, and the rest are in other languages. Outstanding amongst these are Arabic, Chinese,
French and Portuguese. There is an important difference within this group of languages
however. While the two Asian languages mainly appear in broadcasts directed to the final
consumer (either through open broadcasting or through their inclusion in DTH subscription
24
packages), the broadcasts in French and Portuguese are mainly signals on C band, directed
to all of North America (including Canada) in the case of French, or to the whole of
America (especially Brazil) in the case of Portuguese. For the remaining languages, except
Spanish, the general tendency is similar to that of Chinese and Arabic, with open broadcasts
directed to the end user or with encrypted broadcasts, many of which are included in digital
satellite platforms. Amongst the big North American platforms, Dish TV has a large offer
of broadcasts in languages other than English: over one hundred and thirty channels in
these languages, of which thirty-one are in Spanish. DirecTV offers its subscribers a total of
42 channels in Spanish, besides its channels in English, and is timidly widening its
linguistic offer at the present time. In fact, there are several reports that point to the so-
called ethnic market as one of the growth opportunities for business in North American
television (Mitsis 2004).14 Voom does not at present offer programs in languages other than
English.
From a comparison of the number of broadcasts in each language and the number of
persons who speak it, as shown on the table, several conclusions can be drawn. Besides the
presence of 41 different languages, we must indicate that out of the twenty-two languages
mentioned in the US census as having more than two hundred thousand speakers, all except
Gujurati have a broadcast. If we widen the spread to include languages spoken by over one
hundred thousand people, taking the total to thirty-eight, eight languages appear that do not
have a broadcast: besides Gujurati, these languages are Asian (Cambodian and Lao),
African (Kru-Ibo-Yoruba), European (Ukrainian and Yiddish), and one native to America
itself: Navajo. There are languages spoken by a smaller number of people that do however
have a television signal. According to this data, in the best of cases nine out of every ten
people in the United States who speak a language other than English at home have the
possibility of gaining access to satellite television broadcasts in their family language. We
should recall that we are speaking of the technical possibility of receiving such signals,
which must be filtered by economic factors (especially in the case of subscription
channels), television uses, etc.
These broadcasts in languages other than English have a diverse origin. Thus, some
correspond to foreign television channels, which send their signals either directly or
through North American packages to the homes at which they are directed. In other cases
we find North American producers who – whether because they originate from a diasporic
25
community of for other reasons – broadcast from within the country to the community in
question, feeding ethnic economies or economic enclaves, depending on the case (Zhou and
Cai 2002). Finally, there are a fair number of multilingual broadcasts, where, besides
English, users are offered the option of receiving the audio signal in different languages.
To these broadcasts must be added, besides diffusion by cable, part time broadcasts
(that is, without a predominant character on the channel) in languages other than English.
Hamid Naficy shows, for example, that broadcasts in Middle Eastern languages within
local North American channels are a phenomenon with a certain tradition behind it (Naficy
2003).
Given this panorama, it is not surprising that amongst the not particularly abundant
bibliography on the uses made by the diasporas of the television of their country of origin,
we can find several studies of cases in the United States. These analyse this use amongst
different communities: Hindu (Thompson 2002); Arab (Etefa 2004); Chinese (Hwang and
He 1999; Yang et al. 2004; Zhou and Cai 2002); Korean (Lee 2004); Middle Eastern
(Naficy 1995; Naficy 2003); or Spanish, where there are more detailed studies both of uses
(Santis 2003) and of the penetration of the US market by this language (Sinclair 1999;
Sinclair 2004; Sinclair, Jacka, and Cunningham 1996).
The European Union
According to the data from the UN cited above, the states of the European Union
form another big receiver of people displaced from their country of origin. Germany,
France and Italy, for example, have more than five million each. With respect to television
broadcasts, we have counted approximately 3,300 that reach Europe via satellite. The
majority of these are broadcasts in official languages of the European Union, nearly all with
an official character at a state level, and a few with some degree of official status at a
regional level within the states.15 Another group is formed of broadcasts in the languages of
European countries that do not belong to the Union, some of which are normally recognised
as the languages of minorities historically established in member countries (such as the case
of Russian in Estonia and Lithuania, Croatian in Austria, Armenian in Cyprus, or
Belarussian in Poland). Finally, approximately five hundred broadcasts correspond to
languages that are not considered European.16 If the non-official languages spoken in the
26
Union are added to the latter, we reach a total of six hundred broadcasts, as can be seen in
Table 5.
Table 5: Satellite television broadcasts in the European UnionOfficial or semi-official languages (2.657) Other languages (635)
More than 100 More than 100English (814), Spanish (367), French (297), Italian (293), German (288), Polish (120), Swedish (117)
Arabic (141), Turkish (107)
Between 10 and 100 Between 10 and 100Portuguese (75), Greek (70), Hungarian (58), Dutch (34), Danish (33), Czech (31), Finnish (17), Slovak (10)
Russian (94), Romanian (35), Norwegian (30), Serbo-Croatian (26), Farsi (23), Hindi (23), Ukrainian (23), Chinese (17), Bulgarian (16), Tamil (11)
Less than 10 Less than 10Catalan (9), Latvian (6), Lithuanian (4), Luxemburgese (4), Slovenian (3), Galician (2), Welsh (2), Basque (1), Estonian (1), Irish (1)
Kurdish (9), Urdu (9), Bengali (7), Georgian (7), Malayalam (7), Albanian (4), Armenian (4), Azerbaijan (4), Japanese (4), Punjabi (4), Thai (4), Burmese (3), Korean (3), Philippine (3), Sinhala (3), Vietnamese (3), Hebrew (2), Macedonian (2), Assyrian (1), Belarussian (1), Cambodian (1), Kazakh (1), Malay/Indonesian (1), Maldivian (1), Telugu (1)
If we consider the different types of broadcasts, we can observe a similar tendency
to what we have already noted for English in the United States; that is, two out of every
three broadcasts in official or semi-official languages of the EU are encrypted, while this
proportion is inverted in the other languages. This tendency is due to the fact that a large
part of the broadcasts in official or semi-official languages occurs within packages offered
by satellite platforms, open or encrypted. This limits their area of reception to a regional or
national market.17 Open broadcasts in other languages, however, show a greater tendency
towards continent-wide broadcasting, or to cover regions wider than the states. An example
of this is that it would be theoretically possible in France to receive over one hundred open
broadcasts in Arabic, besides a further twenty Arabic broadcasts in subscription packages.
The figure for broadcasts in Spanish in France is over eighty.18 While this is the general
tendency, there are important differences between the different languages. Thus German,
for example, appears in many open broadcasts to Europe, while French has a much lower
percentage of FTA broadcasts.
There is no data available to us about the number of speakers of the languages not
considered as European in the EU – a question that is arduous, complex and doubtless
polemical; it is thus not possible to draw a relation between the presence of language
27
communities and the signals broadcast in those languages. However, from the partial data
available to us, we know for a fact that languages such as Arabic and Turkish are spoken by
millions of inhabitants of the EU. Similarly, different studies draw attention to the fact that
in the big European metropolises there is not only great linguistic diversity, but that many
of these “other” languages show great vitality and are maintained as languages of family
transmission (Baker and Eversley 2000; Extra and Yagmur 2004 ). This strengthens the
idea of the importance held by transnational television in the cultural, linguistic and
identitarian evolution of the countries that are host to different diasporas.
An example of this can be found in the different studies made in Europe on the uses
of satellite television amongst the diasporas. Works are available on the Turkish
communities in the United Kingdom (Askoy and Robins 2000; Askoy and Robins 2003a;
Askoy and Robins 2003b), Germany (Hargreaves 1999), France (Hargreaves and Mahdjoub
1997) and Holland (Milikowski 2000; Ogan and Milikowski 1998); or on the Arab
communities in France (Hargreaves and Mahdjoub 1997) and in the Basque Country
(Amezaga and others 2001). There are also studies on the use of this medium in the United
Kingdom amongst people whose origin is Indian (Thompson 2002), Chinese (Siew-peng
2001), South Asian (Tsagarousianou 2001; Van Der Veer 2004), Greek and Cypriot
(Georgiou 2001).
Australia
In the Australian case, we do not find as wide a number of broadcasts as in the
United States or the European Union, possibly due to the relatively small size of its
population. Thus we can count some five hundred signals in total, more than half of which
are in the English language. The remainder are broadcast in different languages, although
the majority are signals emitted on C band, requiring large dish antennas for their reception.
28
Table 6: Satellite television broadcasts for a 150 cm. dish antenna and
habitual speakers of each language in AustraliaLanguage Speakers Broadcasts Language Speakers BroadcastsEnglish 15.013.965 218 French 39.643 2Chinese 401.357 34 Italian 353.605 1Hindi 47.817 5 Korean 39.529 1Arabic 209.372 4 Japanese 28.285 1Croatian 119.054 4 Hungarian 24.485 1Turkish 50.693 3 Vietnamese 174.236 0Tamil 24.074 3 Spanish 93.593 0Dutch 40.188 3 German 76.443 0Thai - 19 3 Macedonian 71.994 0Greek 263.717 2 Polish 59.056 0
Philippine 78.878 2Indigenous Languages 50.978 1
Table 6 shows those signals that can be received with a domestic dish antenna (no
larger than one and half metres in diameter), as well as the data concerning the number of
speakers of those languages with a population over 50,000, according to the data of the
2001 Census (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2001). We can observe that with the exception
of English and Chinese, the other languages have a relatively small number of broadcasts in
Australia.20 Perhaps the most striking case is that of the Vietnamese language that, in spite
of being the language of an important group in the country, does not have a single
broadcast according to our data.21 European languages with a significant number of
speakers, such as Italian and Greek, have only one or two broadcasts, lower than other
Asian languages with a smaller demographic weight in the country. Others such as Spanish,
German, Macedonian and Polish have no signal that can be received with a domestic dish
antenna, unlike Turkish, Tamil, Philippine, Korean and Japanese, which do have a presence
in this medium.22 According to this data, we estimate that six out of every ten residents in
Australia who speak a language other than English at home have, theoretically, the
possibility of receiving a satellite television broadcast in which their language is of
everyday use.
To complete this picture of diasporic televisions, we must bear in mind the presence
in some Australian cities of community channels in which different language groups
participate with their own broadcasts.
Finally, we note that nearly all the languages other than English are mainly emitted
through open signals. Amongst the encrypted broadcasts, only two (in Italian and Greek)
29
are available in the big Australian satellite platforms (Foxtel, Austar and Optus), with
distribution of the majority of broadcasts left in the hands of other companies that operate
in the country (Jadeworld, Skynet, Visionasia and Globecast).
Conclusion
Different factors contribute to shaping the linguistic panorama of satellite television
briefly outlined in this article. We have observed that the principal element to be considered
is the persistence of the national market as the principal target of the majority of satellite
broadcasts. The case of English, with over eighty percent of its broadcasts circumscribed to
Anglophone countries and thirty percent to strictly local markets, is a further example of
how the technical possibilities of large-scale television diffusion are reduced by political
and economic factors. However, the prominence of the national market, at times limited to
the nation state and at others holding pan-national ambitions (the case of Arabic), does not
in any respect mean that we are facing closed communication spaces. An example of how
the tendencies of globalisation combine with the persistence of national spaces can be seen
in the strategies of “glocalisation”, or the adaptation of the big agents to the linguistic,
cultural, economic or political conditions of the countries to which their business is
directed; while reproducing certain local elements, these big transnational companies are
extending their hegemony throughout the planet (Chang 2003).
If we consider broadcasts in languages outside the so-called “natural” territories of
those languages, our total shows a phenomenon of considerable dimensions. The fact that
thousands of broadcasts can be considered within this category is due to very different
reasons. One of these is related to the strategy of companies, governments or other types of
organisation to maintain or strengthen their presence in different places, profiting from the
advantageous conditions that a certain language might provide in regions of the planet
where it is not spoken by a majority. This is the case of English in practically the whole
world, of French in some zones, of Chinese in others, of Arabic, of Turkish, etc. These
broadcasts seek geolinguistic regions, rather than geographical spaces, where their own
space of communication or market can be created.
Another element that is contributing significantly to the spread of languages via
satellite television is formed by those broadcasts that are more specifically directed at
diasporas, with the latter term broadly understood as an ensemble of people of a country or
30
culture that resides outside the country or territory from where that culture originates. This
is the group that is of most interest to us in our work, and from the observation of the data
relating to the diffusion of the different languages via satellite in the different parts of the
globe, we can affirm that we are facing a phenomenon that deserves to be taken into
account. In the age of satellite television, geolinguistic regions are not defined by
geographic proximity, but by a community of language and culture (Sinclair 2000). We can
therefore say that migratory movements and diasporic processes are contributing to a clear
expansion of the geolinguistic regions of a certain number of languages throughout the
planet, thanks to the use of this medium. We do not have available detailed audience
studies that would provide us with empirical information about the real access to television
broadcasts in their own language in the different diasporic communities spread over the
world. The increase in the offer of the so-called ethnic channels in the satellite platforms of
the rich countries suggests, however, that there is a sufficiently large demand to justify the
necessary investment.23 Similarly, analysis of the different case studies to which we have
had access tells us that the use of these broadcasts by such communities can be considered
significant, both in the sense that it is habitual and not sporadic, and in the sense that it
holds important implications for the persons involved, as well as for the communities to
which they belong (both for the country of reference and for the place of residence).
At the beginning of this article we said that one of the most studied aspects of the
cultural consequences of globalisation is the diffusion on a planetary scale of cultural
models arising from the rich countries, breaking down other existing cultural models. But
we also said, and in the light of our data we would restate, that together with that tendency,
other apparently contradictory tendencies are occurring that are worthy of consideration.
Satellite television provides us with abundant examples of this, with the United States
perhaps providing the clearest case. With a television market that promotes English as the
clearly dominant language in this medium, we find over one thousand English language
broadcasts that cover non-Anglophone regions of the planet. But at the same time, the
economic potential of the United States not only attracts a considerable flow of immigrants
from throughout the whole world, but also innumerable television signals now accompany
them in their migration: over nine hundred broadcasts in languages other than English can
thus be received in US territory itself. We find similar situations in other rich countries,
such as the European Union or, to a lesser extent, Australia. Hence, globalisation does not
31
only affect English, but also many other languages of communities that, from a position of
relative disadvantage facing the richer societies, have no other option than to globalise
themselves. Considering the dimensions of the phenomenon of diasporic television, we thus
restate the need for reflection on its future and on the processes that are linked to its uses.
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1 This article has been possible thanks to the School of Communication, Culture and Languages of the Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne, which invited me as a Visiting Research Fellow during six months in 2004; and to the University of the Basque Country, which funded my stay there.
2The article cited, prepared in 2002 with data for that year, counts nearly six thousand broadcasts in a similar number of languages, in contrast to our present figure which is nearly twice that. There are different reasons for this increase. On the one hand, there has been an overall increase in television broadcasts in recent years, both because of the presence of satellites with a greater capacity and because of the multiplication of signals with the advance from analogue to digital broadcasts (making it possible not only to broadcast more video signals on the same frequency, but also to broadcast multiple audio signals – that is, different languages – for the same video signal). On the other hand, satellite broadcasting of local television in the United States (which started in 1999 and has been developing since then) has resulted in a spectacular increase in the number of broadcasts in that country, not only in English but also in Spanish. Finally, the original data used in 2002 contained appreciable faults, particularly regarding the use of different audio channels together with the same video signal, which we have corrected for our new count.
3 Source: compiled by the author, based on data of Satco (Satco 2002), Lyngsat (Lyngsat 2003) and other lesser sources. The data concerning the speakers of each language are taken from Ethnologue (Grimes 1992).
4 The disparity concerning the number of English speakers is such that while Ethnologue offers the figure of 508 million, other censuses raise this to 1,000 million (Linguasphere Observatory 1999) or even 1,400 million (Crystal 1997). Within this latter figure, English would be the mother tongue of a quarter, a second language of a similar number, while another 800 million would have studied it. In the interest of homogenising the data employed, we have preferred to make use here of the figure from Ethnologue, although this might appear conservative.
5 Mandarin and Cantonese.6 Multilingual broadcasts, in the original language, or in an unspecified language.7 The large number of local-into-local broadcasts in the United States is explained both by the quantity of local
televisions throughout the country and by a lack of agreement, until recently, between companies, which resulted in the duplication of local broadcasts in different satellite platforms (Dish Network and Direct TV USA).
8 In this group we include broadcasts directed to other American countries, whether or not they reach the USA and Canada, or to the entire continent. The same is true of broadcasts from Europe with respect to the United Kingdom and Ireland, as well as those broadcast towards East Asia-Pacific, and those of global scope.
9 This figure is obviously related to the low rate of access to television on this continent, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, with 7 television receivers per 100 inhabitants (Paua 2003)
10 We are aware of the problems that the consideration of Serbian and Croatian as a single language could cause. But as we explained before, our source for the classification of languages is Ethnologue, which considers both of them as a single language.
11 And they can do this by bringing people into contact with each other and with their (real or imaginary) country of origin; people who in the strict meaning of the term diaspora are scattered, without any contact with the place of reference or even with other people of the same origin. As satellite television is a medium that in the first instance is consumed in a domestic, individual or family form, these people, who had not participated in any diasporic community life, now enter the cultural and political space of the imagined community, thanks to television. This is something we have observed, for example, with third, fourth and fifth generation descendants of Basque immigrants in Latin America, amongst whom Basque identity has been re-born through television uses. Considered from this perspective, we can say that in certain cases it is not so much prior identification that motivates use of the television of the country of origin, but rather it is this use that leads to a deepening of an identity previously lacking clear definition, with such people then becoming part of the diaspora (Amezaga 2004a).
12 The data concerning regular speakers are taken from the 2000 Census and refer to the language spoken at home by persons over the age of 5 (U.S. Census Bureau 2000).
13 Consideration of the language used is a more reliable approach to diasporic realities than data on immigration. This emerges from the difference between the number of speakers of languages other than English (47 million) and the number of people born outside the United States (35 million).
14 Interest by the television industry in the so-called ethnic offer is increasing not only in North America, but also in Europe (Fry 2002; Holmes 2003).
15 For greater detail on the presence or absence of satellite broadcasts in the languages of this group, which are minority in character and not officially recognised at the state level, see our previously cited article, although it only refers to the former EU of 15 members, not today’s EU which has 25 members (Amezaga 2004b).
16 We share the reserve of several authors concerning the distinction normally made between European languages – whether “national languages” or “regional minority languages” – and “minority languages of immigrants” or simply non-European languages (Cheesman 1999; Extra and Yagmur 2004). Firstly, because problems arise with this
distinction when we recall that there are supposedly non-European languages spoken by several million people on the continent, some of which have a historical presence in some European countries (the case of Arabic, with a presence of seven centuries on the Iberian peninsula). Secondly, this is not a politically innocent definition and it has important consequences when it comes to designing linguistic policies both in individual member countries and in the Union as a whole.
We consider it more than likely that the use of satellite television, along with many other factors, will result in the establishment in Europe of languages that, according to the logic of the theories of the integration and acculturation of immigrants, were in the past considered as languages in the course of dying out in the metropolis, but which nevertheless appear to be challenging that tendency.
For our analysis we employ the distinction between languages with some type of official recognition in the European Union (nation state or regional) and languages without such recognition.
17 Besides the dominant type of broadcast from a country towards the market of the country itself, we find other types: those with a markedly pan-European character, with diffusion in several countries in one or several languages; others that are directed from an EU country in search of markets in other member states; channels proceeding from outside the EU in official EU languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese), etc. (European Audiovisual Observatory 2004)
18 According to an official report there are nearly one million people who speak Arabic in France, together with half a million who speak Spanish (Ministère de la culture et de la communication 2002).
19 The data published in the Australian census does not include details on the number of Thai speakers, probably because they are a small group.
20 It is worth noting that the offer of channels in languages other than English in Australia fell sharply following the collapse in June 2004 of the Tarbs company, which offered DTH television services with over fifty channels in 18 languages.
21 According to some studies, this is due to the characteristics of the emigration of Vietnamese who were officially excluded from their country of origin. This leads them to television uses that do not depend on centres based in Vietnam. The clearest example is their use of video, a medium that is widely established in (Cunningham et al. 2000; Cunningham and Nguyen 2003; Sinclair and Cunningham 2000). The use of this medium has also been shown in connection with the Macedonian community (Kolar-Panov 1996; Kolar-Panov 2003).
22 It should be recalled that in the Australian case we are referring to broadcasts that can be received with a domestic dish antenna. If we widen the spectrum to the other signals, we observe that broadcasts in Spanish, German and other cited languages, which can be received with large dish antennas, are in fact received and retransmitted by other means. This is the case with television news programs from different countries, regularly rebroadcast by the multicultural channel SBS through terrestrial retransmission.
23 Just as there are studies of the “glocalisation” strategies of the big communication agents in the different regions of the planet, it would doubtless be interesting to analyse the “ethnicisation” strategies of the national television distributors within their countries of operation.